Custom ListView in Android using Jetpack Compose

Listview is used to display data in a vertically scrollable manner. We have seen How to create a simple ListView in Android Jetpack Compose. In this article, we will take a look at How to create a Custom ListView for displaying multiple data within it using Jetpack Compose. We will be creating a simple application in which we will be displaying different languages within our listview along with their names. On clicking on any of the languages we will be displaying a Toast message. 

Step by Step Implementation

Step 1: Create a New Project in Android Studio

To create a new project in Android Studio please refer to How to Create/Start a New Project in Android Studio. While choosing the template, select Empty Compose Activity. If you do not find this template, try upgrading the Android Studio to the latest version. We demonstrated the application in Kotlin, so make sure you select Kotlin as the primary language while creating a New Project.

Step 2: Creating a modal class

Navigate to the app > java > your app’s package name > Right-click on it > New > Java/Kotlin class and name your class as ListModal and add the below code to it. Comments are added in the code to get to know in detail. 

Kotlin

package com.example.newcanaryproject

// on below line we are creating a
// modal class for our data class.
data class ListModal(

    // on below line we are creating two variable
    // one is for language name which is string.
    val languageName: String,

    // next variable is for our
    // image which is an integer.
    val languageImg: Int
)

Step 3: Adding a new color in the Color.kt file

Navigate to app > java > your app’s package name > ui.theme > Color.kt file and add the below code to it. Comments are added in the code to get to know in detail. 

Kotlin

package com.example.newcanaryproject.ui.theme

import androidx.compose.ui.graphics.Color

val Purple200 = Color(0xFF0F9D58)
val Purple500 = Color(0xFF0F9D58)
val Purple700 = Color(0xFF3700B3)
val Teal200 = Color(0xFF03DAC5)

// on below line we are adding different colors.
val greenColor = Color(0xFF0F9D58)

Step 4: Adding images to the drawable folder

Copy all the images which you want to add to your grid view. Navigate to app > res > drawable. Right-click on it and paste all the images into the drawable folder.

Step 5: Working with the MainActivity.kt file

Go to the MainActivity.kt file and refer to the following code. Below is the code for the MainActivity.kt file. Comments are added inside the code to understand the code in more detail.

Kotlin

package com.example.newcanaryproject

import android.content.Context
import android.os.Bundle

import android.widget.Toast
import androidx.activity.ComponentActivity
import androidx.activity.compose.setContent
import androidx.compose.foundation.ExperimentalFoundationApi
import androidx.compose.foundation.Image
import androidx.compose.foundation.layout.*
import androidx.compose.foundation.lazy.GridCells
import androidx.compose.foundation.lazy.LazyColumn
import androidx.compose.foundation.lazy.LazyVerticalGrid
import androidx.compose.foundation.lazy.itemsIndexed
import androidx.compose.material.*
import androidx.compose.runtime.*
import androidx.compose.ui.Alignment
import androidx.compose.ui.Modifier
import androidx.compose.ui.graphics.Color
import androidx.compose.ui.platform.LocalContext
import androidx.compose.ui.res.painterResource
import androidx.compose.ui.text.style.TextAlign
import androidx.compose.ui.unit.*
import coil.compose.rememberAsyncImagePainter
import com.example.newcanaryproject.ui.theme.*
import java.util.*

class MainActivity : ComponentActivity() {

    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContent {
            NewCanaryProjectTheme {
                // on below line we are specifying
                // background color for our application
                Surface(
                    modifier = Modifier.fillMaxSize(),
                    color = MaterialTheme.colors.background
                ) {
                    // on below line we are specifying theme as scaffold.
                    Scaffold(
                        // in scaffold we are specifying top bar.
                        topBar = {
                            // inside top bar we are specifying background color.
                            TopAppBar(backgroundColor = greenColor,
                                // along with that we are specifying title for our top bar.
                                title = {
                                    // in the top bar we are specifying tile as a text
                                    Text(
                                        // on below line we are specifying text
                                        // to display in top app bar.
                                        text = "Custom List View Example",

                                        // on below line we are specifying modifier
                                        // to fill max width.
                                        modifier = Modifier.fillMaxWidth(),

                                        // on below line we are specifying text alignment.
                                        textAlign = TextAlign.Center,

                                        // on below line we are specifying color for our text.
                                        color = Color.White
                                    )
                                }
                            )
                        }
                    ) {
                        // on below line we are calling custom list
                        // view function to display custom listview.
                        customListView(LocalContext.current)
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}


@OptIn(ExperimentalMaterialApi::class)
@Composable
fun customListView(context: Context) {
    // on below line we are creating and
    // initializing our array list
    lateinit var courseList: List<ListModal>
    courseList = ArrayList<ListModal>()

    // on below line we are adding data to our list.
    courseList = courseList + ListModal("Android", R.drawable.android)
    courseList = courseList + ListModal("JavaScript", R.drawable.js)
    courseList = courseList + ListModal("Python", R.drawable.python)
    courseList = courseList + ListModal("C++", R.drawable.c)
    courseList = courseList + ListModal("C#", R.drawable.csharp)
    courseList = courseList + ListModal("Java", R.drawable.java)
    courseList = courseList + ListModal("Node Js", R.drawable.nodejs)

    // on below line we are creating a
    // lazy column for displaying a list view.
    LazyColumn {
        // on below line we are setting data for each item of our listview.
        itemsIndexed(courseList) { index, item ->
            // on below line we are creating a card for our list view item.
            Card(
                // inside our grid view on below line
                // we are adding on click for each item of our grid view.
                onClick = {
                    // inside on click we are displaying the toast message.
                    Toast.makeText(
                        context,
                        courseList[index].languageName + " selected..",
                        Toast.LENGTH_SHORT
                    ).show()
                },
                // on below line we are adding
                // padding from our all sides.
                modifier = Modifier.padding(8.dp),

                // on below line we are adding
                // elevation for the card.
                elevation = 6.dp
            )
            {
                // on below line we are creating
                // a row for our list view item.
                Row(
                    // for our row we are adding modifier
                    // to set padding from all sides.
                    modifier = Modifier
                        .padding(8.dp)
                        .fillMaxWidth()
                ) {
                    // on below line inside row we are adding spacer
                    Spacer(modifier = Modifier.width(5.dp))

                    // on below line we are adding image to display the image.
                    Image(
                        // on below line we are specifying the drawable image for our image.
                        painter = painterResource(id = courseList[index].languageImg),

                        // on below line we are specifying
                        // content description for our image
                        contentDescription = "Javascript",

                        // on below line we are setting height
                        // and width for our image.
                        modifier = Modifier
                            .height(60.dp)
                            .width(60.dp)
                            .padding(5.dp)
                    )

                    // on below line we are adding spacer between image and a text
                    Spacer(modifier = Modifier.width(5.dp))

                    // on the below line we are creating a text.
                    Text(
                        // inside the text on below line we are
                        // setting text as the language name
                        // from our modal class.
                        text = courseList[index].languageName,

                        // on below line we are adding padding
                        // for our text from all sides.
                        modifier = Modifier.padding(4.dp),

                        // on below line we are adding color for our text
                        color = Color.Black, textAlign = TextAlign.Center
                    )
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Now run your application to see the output of it. 

Output: